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MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY. 



Bordet furthermore states in the same connection that he 

 agrees with Buchner in regarding the alexin for blood-cells and 

 for bacteria as identical — that one and the same alexin may 

 attack the most diverse cells; whereas Neisser and others of the 

 Ehrlich school hold that alexins or complements are different 

 in one and the same serum. 



While it is evident from the above that the terms amboceptor 

 and sensibilisatrice are used to designate the same substance, it 

 is scarcely correct to use them interchangeably, since they con- 

 note somewhat different at- 

 tributes in the body to which 

 they refer. The same is true 

 of the terms complement and 

 alexin, though to a less degree. 

 The following diagrams, 

 obtained from various sources 

 and modified to suit the pur- 

 pose, will serve to illustrate 

 the process of bacteriolysis 

 according to the view of the 

 Ehrlich school. 



Fig. 56 represents in its 

 simplest form the mechanism 

 of bacteriolysis according to the Ehrlich hypothesis, and serves 

 to illustrate the process sufhciently for present purposes. 



In the diagram the bacteria are represented by the parts 

 marked b, the amboceptors by those marked a, and the com- 

 plements by those marked k. In No. i the bacterium, am- 

 boceptor, and complement are represented as just on the point 

 of uniting. No. 2 represents the bacterium and the ambocep- 

 tor united and the complement on the point of uniting with the 

 unoccupied end of the amboceptor. No. 3 represents the pro- 

 cess of uniting of bacterium, amboceptor and complement com- 

 pleted; the bacterium in this case would undergo bacteriolysis. 



Fig. 56. — Illustration of the mechan- 

 ism of bacteriolysis according to the 

 Ehrlich hypothesis. 



